Council directs staff to develop ‘site plan lite’ process

In an attempt to speed up city processing of plans for “missing middle” housing developments, City Council approved a resolution Thursday that sponsors and housing advocates hope will shorten the wait for developers seeking to build triplexes, fourplexes and other small developments. Mayor Pro Tem Alison Alter abstained from the vote, expressing concern that the abbreviated process might have a negative impact on parkland fees and tree protection. The rest of Council voted in favor of the resolution authored by Council Member Paige Ellis.

According to the resolution, staff will be expected to develop a procedure called “site plan lite” for developments of three to 16 residential units. First, staffers are directed to add triplexes and fourplexes to residential review, which currently considers single-family housing and duplexes. These do not require a site plan.

Under current procedures, any project larger than a duplex must abide by the same time-consuming rules as large multifamily and commercial projects do. That may involve more than 10 different departments.

“We’ve got units that are getting stuck in a permitting process that is designed for much larger projects. So, I think when you have missing middle housing as small as five units having to undergo a very lengthy and costly process – that’s why we’re not seeing housing coming onto the market,” Ellis said. “You know, people can’t live in the pipeline. And so we need to make sure that these units are coming online, that people are able to buy homes. … We’re in a housing crisis … I’m excited about this first step and I look forward to what comes back in the next few months.”

The management team, led by Assistant City Manager Rodney Gonzales, will have their work cut out for them as they “holistically review all existing non-zoning development requirements for value and impact an application to missing-middle projects, including but not limited to drainage and water quality, parking and street impact fees, parkland dedication, trees and utilities,” as stated in the resolution.

Under the resolution, Council directed the city manager to bring back ordinances related to residential review of triplexes and fourplexes no later than March 9, 2023. In addition, the manager is also expected to bring back the site plan lite review for housing of five to 16 units by June 1, 2023.

Council Member Chito Vela offered an amendment to set a goal for the site plan lite review “no more than 90 days on average.” Gonzales had several questions about that directive. First, he wanted to know whether Vela was referring to 90 calendar days or 90 business days. Usually, the city refers to business days because of weekends and city holidays, when staff members are not available. After some discussion, Vela agreed to business days.

According to Vela’s amendment, if the city manager determines that 90 days is not a feasible goal, he will develop a goal consistent with the review times for projects of five to 16 units similar to what “peer Texas cities” provide. He wrote, “The greatest burden the site plan review process places on a development is often not the fees or the direct cost to comply with regulations, but the fact that it can take 1-2 years for a project to get through the site plan review. Crafting site plan review through the lens of reducing how long it takes to get through the process may have the greatest practical benefit on the ground.”

However, Gonzales explained that project approval is often slowed down, not by staff, but by the developer sitting on a project for lengthy time periods.

Alter said she was not completely comfortable with the resolution, though noted it had broad support on the dais. She was particularly interested in seeing how the city can accomplish the site plan lite goals “without undermining our parkland and environmental goals and our drainage needs. I think everyone shares that goal. I’m just more comfortable abstaining on that.” Council Member Kathie Tovo said she had the same concerns as Alter about parkland and environmental goals.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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